Princess Maria Tenisheva. Bringing beauty to people. The life and work of Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva. Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna: brief biography
So the Smolensk region acquired amazing person. And today’s walk will be a story about Maria Klavdievna.
True, her husband’s relatives did not recognize the dowry, and Maria Klavdievna was never included in the genealogy of the Tenishev princes.
Tenishev gave Maria Klavdievna, in addition to spiritual support, a princely title, fortune and the opportunity to realize herself as an educator and philanthropist.
She created the School of Craft Students (near Bryansk), opened several elementary public schools in St. Petersburg and Smolensk, together with Repin, drawing schools were organized, courses for teacher training were opened.
Maria Klavdievna’s life’s work was Talashkino, the family estate of her childhood friend, Princess Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, which the Tenishevs acquired in 1893, leaving the management of the affairs in the hands of the former mistress. Tenisheva and Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya realized in Talashkino the idea of an “ideological estate”: enlightenment, agricultural development and the revival of traditional folk artistic culture as a life-giving, life-creative force.
At the turn of the century, Talashkino turned into the spiritual and cultural center of Russia, where traditional Russian culture was revived and developed by the community of outstanding artists of the era. Roerich called Talashkino an “artistic nest”, as famous in its time as Abramtsevo near Moscow. The neo-Russian style in art comes from Talashkino.
In 1894, the Tenishevs bought the Flenovo farmstead near Talashkino and opened an agricultural school there, unique at that time - with the best teachers, the richest library. Using the latest achievements of agricultural science during practical classes allowed the school to train real farmers, whom Stolypin's reform demanded.
There is only one street here. And it's called Museum. And the house is lived mainly by museum aunties who are workers.
At the school, on the initiative of the princess, educational workshops of applied arts were created: ceramics, carpentry, wood carving and painting, fabric dyeing and embroidery, metal embossing. Children from poor families, and most of the students, were taken into full care. Cozy houses for boys and girls were built next to the school. Poorly performing students were not expelled from school. They taught some craft. Princess M.K. Tenisheva sent capable and talented children to study further in Smolensk, St. Petersburg, and abroad. In her memoirs, the princess wrote: “He comes to school as an unconscious savage - he doesn’t know how to step, and there, you see, little by little he is chipped away, the rough bark peels off - he becomes a man. I loved to unravel these natures, work on them, guide them... Yes, I love my people and believe that the whole future of Russia lies in them, you just need to honestly direct their strengths and abilities.”
The fact that all these charitable deeds came from the heart is also evidenced by the review of one of his contemporaries: “... in Maria Klavdievna’s charity... there is nothing ostentatious, aiming for a cheap, purely external effect. Everything is deep, everything is from the heart.” Princess Tenisheva tried to introduce her students to art. Her friendship with the musician Andreev, who first brought folk instruments to the capital’s stage, ultimately led to the creation of a balalaika orchestra in Talashkino. And the musician of the orchestra, Vasily Aleksandrovich Lidin, left St. Petersburg altogether, moved to Talashkino and headed the folk instrument orchestra he created. Andreev often visited the Tenishev estate; participated in concerts with peasant children.
She herself was a wonderful enamel artist. Her works were exhibited in Paris, receiving unanimous approval from professional craftsmen (an unprecedented thing for a woman, and a foreigner at that) in Italy, the birthplace of enamel, in London, Brussels, and Prague.
Sergei Malyutin is the author of the carved “Teremka” (1902). We see him almost immediately as we enter the gate. Again, like Tenisheva herself, this man is a storehouse of talent: he is an artist, an architect, and a set designer, in general, a jack of all trades. And he invented the matryoshka toy.
Museum cat and hedgehog.
And the air is here! I just want to sit on a bench and listen to the silence.
Malyutin and the architect of the Church of the Holy Spirit (1903-1908), which was already painted by Roerich. The church is located on a high hill. It was also built as the future tomb of Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev.
Now it is being very seriously restored. And the face of Christ is covered with a net.
Nicholas Roerich, first of all for Flenovo, is the artist who painted the Church of the Holy Spirit and decorated its external facades with striking smalt mosaics. He came to Smolensk at the invitation of the princess. The city, and especially the Smolensk Wall, greatly impressed him: “The Smolensk hills, white birches, golden water lilies, white lotuses, like the cups of life in India, reminded us of the eternal shepherd Lela and the beautiful Kupava, or, as the Hindu would say, of Krishna and the Gopis " Roerich painted several paintings here (“Watchtower”, “ General form Kremlin walls”, “Smolensk Tower”, etc.). In the Art Workshops he works on ceramics (in “Teremka” there are his works - a vase and paintings). And a few years later he came to Flenovo again to paint the church. He manages to complete the frescoes of the altar, paint one of the arches and lay out a mosaic over the main entrance (the First World War began). The paintings were on a fabric basis! And for this reason they were not preserved. And most importantly, Roerich depicted above the altar not the Russian Mother of God, but the Mother of the World, that is, he departed from the Orthodox canons, and therefore the church itself was strictly denied consecration. Only its ground floor (tomb) was consecrated. After the revolution, the body of Prince Tenishev was taken out of the tomb of the Church of the Holy Spirit, before setting up a vegetable storage there. They say that some peasants secretly reburied him in a birch grove. And now near the church there is a symbolic cross in memory of the owner of these lands, the benefactor and husband of Princess Tenisheva.
Interrupted with the revolution of 1905 old life in "Russian Athens". Arsons began, revolutionary propaganda was carried out at the school. Princess M.K. Tenisheva could not understand why the world she had created with love was being destroyed before her eyes. In the princess’s memoirs we read her thoughts about what was happening: “I look at everything as a fatal fate from above. This must be the way it should be... There was silence where the school was. And above it, high on the mountain, stands alone on the top the crown of the deed of love - the temple. During sunset, I look sadly from the balcony at the flaming cross, I grieve, I suffer and still love. For a long time I reasoned with myself, my soul ached for a long time, but finally, after many sleepless nights and strong internal struggles, I told myself that churches, museums, monuments are not built for contemporaries who for the most part they are not understood. They are built for future generations, for their development and benefit. It is necessary to discard personal enmity, resentment, all this will be swept away with the death of my enemies and mine. What will be created will remain for the benefit and service of youth, future generations and the homeland. I always loved her, the children and worked as best I could.”
After 1917, Maria Tenisheva emigrated to a small town near Paris. There is no money, but she has her favorite set: hard work, energy, talent. Madame Russian Princess finds use for her gift of creation here too - she becomes a jeweler, a specialist in products inlaid with champlevé enamel. In 1928, the princess passed away.
Russian aristocrat, patron of art, Princess Maria Tenisheva, née Pyatkovskaya, lived an amazing life, similar to a novel, where love and suffering, luxury and poverty, openness and misunderstanding, respect and misunderstandings, gratitude and oblivion were intertwined...
Having learned the details of the princess's life, Ivan Turgenev was inspired to write a story about her, but, unfortunately, did not realize his intention. “Oh, it’s a pity that I’m sick and didn’t know you before,” he often repeated. Portraits of Tenisheva were painted by outstanding masters such as Ilya Repin and Valentin Serov, but even they failed to fully convey the depth of her extraordinary personality, gifted with many talents - a singer, an enamel artist, a collector of art, a philanthropist, and most importantly, a great educator.
Tenisheva was destined to die in a foreign land, and there, far from her homeland, she remained Russian to the end, loved her people and believed that the whole future of Russia lay in them. No wonder Nicholas Roerich called her “the real Martha Posadnitsa.”
“I am drawn somewhere... I painfully want to prove myself in something, to devote myself entirely to some noble cause. I would like to be rich, very rich, in order to create something for the benefit of humanity. It seems to me that I would give my funds to a major project to educate the people, I would create something useful and durable,” we read in the diary of the very young Maria. Yes, her dream came true - when she wrote these lines, it was as if she was looking into water. She really became rich and created many useful and lasting things. But this did not happen right away.
Her childhood cannot be called happy - what happiness could an illegitimate, unloved daughter, born on June 1, 1858 in St. Petersburg, have? There were rumors that Maria's father was Emperor Alexander II himself. And she so missed her mother’s attention and affection... And this feeling of abandonment and uselessness was very difficult to overcome.
When Maria turned sixteen, they rushed to marry her to a young lawyer, Rafail Nikolaev, who was seven years older than her. Or maybe she herself was glad to have the opportunity to leave parents' house where she was not loved. Both the bride and groom belonged to high society, were wealthy, but never became happy.
Nikolaev turned out to be a gambler, an avid gambler, and he was not interested in anything other than cards. He could lie on the couch for hours, leaving it only to beg to borrow money for the next game. Again Maria remained lonely and unloved. The birth of a daughter, also named Maria, did not change anything in the life of the family.
“Everything was so gray, ordinary, meaningless,” Tenisheva recalled. And then she, a young woman, unusually gifted musically - she had a beautiful voice - decided on a desperate act, not wanting to put up with her unhappy fate.
Having sold some of the furniture from her St. Petersburg apartment, she left for Paris, dreaming of becoming a singer, despite threats from her relatives. In Paris, she finally felt free. Fell in love with the universe, fell in love with life, grabbed onto it without looking back at the past.
Maria studied at the famous Marchesi opera studio, she was invited to perform in Madrid, Barcelona, and Italian opera, but her soul wanted something else. "Singing? This is fun, an exciting activity,” she believed, although Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky himself admired her vocal skills.
In 1892, Maria Klavdievna married for the second time - to Prince Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev, the largest Russian industrialist, nicknamed the “Russian American” for his knowledge of commercial affairs. The prince was involved in the construction of Russian railways, invested in the construction of Russia's first automobile plant, and owned many factories. At the same time, he loved art very much and played the cello beautifully.
They met in one of the music salons, where the prince, enchanted by Mary's beauty and voice, showered her with lilies of the valley. Now she had a title and a fortune. True, the prince’s relatives did not recognize her and did not include her in the genealogy of the Tenishev princes, but her dream of serving Russia and her people came true.
Was this family union happy, in which two strong personalities, two extraordinarily gifted people? I think so. They lived together for eleven years, until the death of Vyacheslav Nikolaevich in 1903.
The prince, who was much older than Maria Klavdievna, did not spare money on his wife, he wanted to see her as a luxurious society lady, he bought diamonds and furs, but, in addition, he supported all her projects, helping her realize herself on the basis of enlightenment. Perhaps even he did not fully realize what an extraordinary woman was next to him. She created an amazing creative atmosphere around herself.
Having lived for several years with her husband in Bezhitsa, where he managed a large factory, Maria Klavdievna transformed the lives of the workers: she created schools and vocational schools there, a charitable society to help orphans and widows, an inexpensive canteen with delicious lunches, where the princess herself stood at the distribution of dishes.
Tenisheva's close friend was Princess Ekaterina Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, whom everyone called Kita. The Tenishevs acquired her family estate Talashkino from Kitu, and Maria Klavdievna turned this corner of the earth into a real Russian fairy tale. Everyone knows about Abramtsevo, but they have forgotten about Talashkino. It's a pity. After all, it was a center of arts, crafts, education, and advanced agriculture, famous throughout Russia, created by the tireless efforts of Tenisheva.
“Talashkino has completely transformed. It used to be that wherever you go, life is in full swing. In the workshop they plan, cut wood, and decorate carved furniture with stones, fabrics, and metals. There are muffles in the corner, and here, quietly, I have long been fulfilling my cherished dream, which I was afraid to even talk about out loud: I am doing experiments, searching, working on enamel. In another workshop, girls sit at the hoop and sing songs loudly. Women with knapsacks in their bosoms walk past the workshop: they have brought work or received a new one. You go and your heart rejoices,” she recalled.
Artists Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel, Lev Bakst, and sculptor Paolo Trubetskoy often visited here. The collection of Russian antiquities collected by the princess was exhibited in Paris and made an indelible impression. It served as the basis for the Russian Antiquity Museum in Smolensk, and Tenisheva donated a rich collection of watercolors by Russian masters to the Russian Museum.
Her character was contradictory: her eldest daughter She left her to be raised by her unlucky first husband, and loved other people’s children. They wrote about her: “A high-society woman, whose departure was considered the first in the Bois de Boulogne and who in Paris seated up to two hundred people at the table... goes at the first call to school to a boy whose lips are broken or his nose is bleeding...”
The well-being of the people was more important to her than her own well-being. Many did not understand the princess. All her attempts and undertakings in Russia were explained only by fantasy, ambition, and the whims of a spoiled woman. She was probably ahead of her time and constantly looked to the future in her thoughts and projects.
Tenisheva's memoirs, published after her death in France, end with entries on New Year's Eve from 1916 to 1917. “Now there are only 5 hours left until the end of this ill-fated year. Does 1917 promise us something? God! Send us peace on earth!! May we come out of this horrific war with honor! God, have mercy on us and save us from shame!” - she wrote. But she could not predict how the events of the new year would unfold...
She failed to complete the creation of the Temple of the Spirit in Talashkino, undertaken together with Nicholas Roerich: “A storm flew by, unexpected, terrible, elemental... The creation crackled, the creation fell apart, a cruel, blind force destroyed all love activity... The school chicks were smashed, the masters were dispersed...” Tenisheva remained only to mourn our beloved Russia, which did not have the strength to resist the impending tragedy.
In 1919, Maria Klavdievna and Kita Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya emigrated through the Crimea to France. The princess spent the last nine years of her life near Paris, on the small estate of Vaucresson, which her friends nicknamed “small Talashkino.” Finding herself in poverty, she, already seriously ill, continued to make enamels, earning a living with her own labor.
Tenisheva died on April 14, 1928. Kitu's faithful friend buried her in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud. The princess did not live long enough to see her seventieth birthday. In his obituary dedicated to Maria Klavdievna, the artist Ivan Bilibin wrote: “She devoted her entire life to her native Russian art, for which she did an infinite amount.” Contemporaries called her the pride of Russia, and it was true. But having given everything she had to her homeland, she died in complete oblivion. Only in Lately the glorious name of Maria Tenisheva returns to us from oblivion.
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Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (nee Pyatkovskaya, according to her stepfather - Maria Moritsovna von Desen) was born on May 20, 1858, in St. Petersburg.
The girl was illegitimate and grew up in her stepfather’s rich house as a complete wild child, despite the abundance of governesses, nannies and teachers. They demanded complete obedience and restraint from her. The mother was cold towards her, obviously associating with this child those moments of life that she wanted to forget.
“I was lonely, abandoned. When everything was quiet in the house, I quietly tiptoed into the living room, leaving my shoes outside the door. There are my painting friends... These good ones, smart people are called artists. They must be better, kinder than other people, they probably have a purer heart, a nobler soul?...”
When Maria turned 16 years old, after graduating from a private gymnasium, a young lawyer R. Nikolaev proposed to her. Of course, the thought that marriage would give her freedom pushed her to agree. Early marriage, birth of a daughter. And my husband turned out to be an avid gambler. “Everything was so gray, ordinary, meaningless”– she wrote later.
A trifling incident gave her hope: she was told that her strong “operatic” voice had a beautiful timbre. You need to go to study in Italy or France.
Easy to say! How is this possible? Where's the money? Where's the passport? After all, at that time the wife entered into her husband’s passport. The mother refused to help with money. But Maria collected as much money as she could by selling the furnishings of her room. It was much more difficult to wrest permission to leave from my husband. But this too turned out to be overcome.
...A lonely woman with a small daughter in her arms and with meager luggage boarded a train that promised not Paris - a new life.
“It’s hard to describe what I experienced when I finally felt free... Choking from the influx of uncontrollable feelings, I fell in love with the universe, fell in love with life, grabbed hold of it.”
Sokolov A.P. Portrait of Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (1898)
Maria begins to learn singing from the famous Matilde Marchesi. Also starts taking lessons visual arts from the famous graphic artist Zh.G. Victor, later in St. Petersburg attends the classes of Baron Stieglitz, showing bright abilities in this field. He begins to deeply study the history of art, spending hours reading books and visiting museums.
Another passion that clearly manifested itself in her youth and played an important role in her future fate was love for antiquity, a craving for everything ancient. “Modern exhibitions left me indifferent; I was drawn to antiquity. I could spend hours standing in front of display cases of antique objects.”
Her mezzo-soprano of rare beauty charmed the Parisians. Marchesi was sure that her Russian student would become famous as an opera singer. She was offered a tour of France and Spain. But the entrepreneur, as it turned out, believed that in addition to the interest due to him, the young and beautiful woman there is something to thank him for the profitable engagement. The arbitrariness in the talent market, the dependence on money bags, the grip of which Maria immediately felt, affected her like a cold shower.
“A woman... can only advance by miracle or in ways that have nothing to do with art; every step is given to her with incredible effort.”
There, in Paris, she will feel that the theater and the stage are not for her. "Singing? This is fun... This is not what my destiny wants.”
M.K. Tenisheva. Portrait by I. Repin (1896)
In the meantime - return to Russia, lack of money, ambiguous position in society. The husband actually took away his daughter, sending her to a closed educational institution. He said about his wife’s artistic plans: “I don’t want my name to be scattered over fences on posters!” But the long, grueling divorce still took place. As a result, the daughter became very distant from her mother, not forgiving her even in adulthood for her desire for self-realization to the detriment of caring for the family and her.
At a critical moment in her life, Maria Klavdievna is looking for her best friend childhood Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya. Chetvertinskaya will play a very important role in the life of Maria Klavdievna. A friend invites her to her family estate Talashkino.
Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya
At some friendly party she was asked to sing. A man undertook to accompany him, in whose appearance, if not for the frock coat, which betrayed the hand of an expensive Parisian tailor, there was something peasant, stocky, almost bearish. The cello sounded wonderful in his hands! This is how she met Prince Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev.
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Prince V.N. Tenishev. Leon Bonnat (1896)
He started as a technician at railway with a penny salary. By the time he met Maria, he had a huge fortune, growing steadily thanks to his fantastic energy, enterprise, and excellent knowledge of the commercial and financial world. He managed to become famous as the author of several serious books on agronomy, ethnography, and psychology. He was known as generous benefactor and a serious figure in the field of education. And he was divorced.
In the spring of 1892, Maria and Prince Tenishev got married. Their marriage was not simple and cloudless. She was thirty-four years old, he was forty-eight years old. Two strong independent natures, similar in many ways and at the same time very different, with already established principles and views on life. It was not enough for her to be loved only as a woman: she always wanted to be seen as an individual, to be taken into account with her opinions and principles.
Together with her husband, the princess moved to the town of Bezhitsa, where Tenishev managed the affairs of a large factory.
School opened by Tenisheva in Bezhitsa
Tenisheva recalled: “Little by little, a whole picture of the true situation of the workers at the plant unfolded before me. I discovered that in addition to the overworked matrons and well-fed indifferent figures, there were also small, depressed people, scorched by the fire of foundry furnaces, deafened by the endless blows of the hammer, rightly perhaps embittered, coarse, but still touching, deserving at least a little attention and care for their needs. After all, these were people too. Who, if not they, gave these figures, and my husband and I, prosperity?..”
Repin I.E. Portrait of Princess M.K. Tenisheva (1896)
Maria Klavdievna becomes the trustee of the only school in Bezhitsa, then founds several more schools in the city and surrounding villages. All schools were created and maintained with the capital of the Tenishevs. Maria Klavdievna goes further: she organizes a people's canteen with high-quality lunches and for a reasonable fee. She also made it possible for workers’ families to be given empty lands for temporary use - resettlement began from cramped and stuffy barracks, breeding grounds for dirt and disease. But that's not all. Another important problem is the leisure of workers, which could become an alternative to drunkenness and idleness. Tenisheva is organizing a theater in Bezhitsk, where visiting artists will perform, evenings and concerts will be held.
When Tenishev resigns from the management of the Bryansk factories, the family leaves for St. Petersburg.
Tenishev's house on Promenade des Anglais in St. Petersburg
They began to visit the music salon and the Tenishevs’ house. famous composers and performers, Scriabin, Arsenyev. The voice of the salon owner will then delight Tchaikovsky.
M.K. Tenisheva. Portrait by Serov (painted in the living room of the princess’s house in St. Petersburg)
Maria Klavdievna creates a workshop for herself for serious painting, but is immediately inspired by I. E. Repin’s idea to organize a studio to prepare future students for admission to the Academy of Arts and gives her workshop to the studio. Repin himself undertakes to teach.
Soon this place became very popular among young people. There was no end to those interested, the workshop was filled to capacity, “they worked five hours a day, not paying attention to the cramped and stuffy conditions.” Tenisheva tried to help students: training in the studio was free, everything needed for classes was purchased, free teas were arranged, student works were purchased. Among the students of the Tenishev studio are I.Ya. Bilibin, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, Z.E. Serebryakova, E.V. Chestnyakov and many other future famous artists.
Maria Klavdievna becomes one of the founders of the World of Art magazine.
Cover of the magazine "World of Art"
Tenisheva’s gambling nature was captured by another passion - collecting. On trips with her husband to Europe, the princess, not limited in funds, bought Western European paintings, porcelain, marble sculpture, jewelry, things of historical value, and products by masters from China, Japan, and Iran. Artistic taste was given to her by nature. She learned and understood a lot from communicating with people of art. Readings, lectures, exhibitions completed the matter - Maria acquired the keen sense of a connoisseur and knew how to appreciate what she got into her hands. And so, when she and her husband traveled through the old Russian cities: Rostov, Rybinsk, Kostroma, through Volga villages and monasteries, the princess saw the hand-made beauty of unknown masters - original, unimaginable in the variety of shapes and colors and perfect in execution. Before our eyes, a new collection of utensils, clothing, furniture, jewelry, dishes and crafts was being born - things of amazing beauty, taken from a dim hut or an abandoned barn.
Portrait of Princess Tenisheva M.K. Korovin K.A. (1899)
In 1893, Maria Klavdievna persuades her friend to sell Talashkino to her. As in St. Petersburg, she very quickly creates a hospitable, creative atmosphere in the Talashkino house, which gathers many people here. famous artists, musicians, scientists. I.E. often come here. Repin, M.A. Vrubel, A.N. Bakst, Ya.F. Tsionglinsky, sculptor P.P. Trubetskoy and many others. By the way, in Maria Klavdievna’s circle there were always many people of art, but for some reason there was never an atmosphere of idleness and bohemianism.
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Vrubel M.A. Portrait of Princess M.K. Tenisheva as Valkyrie (1899).
But her most expensive creation was a school on the Flenovo farm near Talashkino, for village children. In September 1895, a new school building with bright classrooms, a dormitory, a dining room, and a kitchen opened its doors. There were a lot of people interested. Orphans had priority when entering school, and Tenisheva took them in for full support. Great attention is paid to the selection of teachers. According to her ideas, a rural teacher should not only know the subject well, but also be a mentor and friend for the child, an example in life.
Teremok in Flenov
Next to the school building, according to Malyutin’s sketch, they rebuilt fairytale house, decorated with carvings and paintings; a library and a teacher's room were located here. People are brought here from the capital and foreign trips best books, textbooks, art albums, magazines.
Door - portal in the interior decoration of Teremka
Another pearl of the Flenov school was the children's balalaika orchestra, which became famous throughout the Smolensk region.
Talashkino Balalaika Orchestra
Also appeared in Talashkino new school with the latest equipment for those times, a public library, a number of educational and economic workshops, where local residents, mostly young people, were engaged in woodworking, metal chasing, ceramics, fabric dyeing, and embroidery. Practical work began on the revival of folk crafts. Many local residents were involved in this process. For example, women from fifty surrounding villages were engaged in the Russian national costume, weaving, knitting and dyeing of fabric.
Products of Talashkin craftsmen
All this went to the Rodnik store opened by Tenisheva in Moscow. There was no end to buyers. Orders also came from abroad. Even prim London became interested in the products of Talashka craftsmen. This success was not accidental. After all, Tenisheva invited those who at that time constituted the artistic elite of Russia to live, create, and work in Talashkino. In the workshops, a village boy could use the advice of M.A. Vrubel. Patterns for embroiderers were invented by V.A. Serov. M.V. Nesterov, A.N. Benoit, K.A. Korovin, N.K. Roerich, V.D. Polenov, sculptor P.P. Trubetskoy, singer F.I. Chaliapin, musicians, artists - this land became a studio, workshop, stage for many masters.
Tenisheva wanted things created according to ancient principles of beauty to enter the life and everyday life of city residents and change their taste, which was accustomed to cheap imitations of European style. And she also really wanted local peasants to participate in the new artistic process. After all, in the Smolensk province from time immemorial there were many handicrafts, but handicrafts have long since departed from their beauty folk art, were rude, clumsy, stereotyped; the peasants tried to improve them, but, not seeing or knowing good examples, they worked primitively and sold their products at low prices. Tenisheva believed that with the right and loving approach, it is possible to revive the primordial craving of Russian people for beauty.
The princess was also fond of enamel - that branch of jewelry making that died out in the 18th century. She decided to revive it. Maria Klavdievna spent whole days in her Talashkino workshop, near the furnaces and galvanic baths.
It was thanks to the work of Tenisheva and her quest that the enamel business was revived, together with the artist Jacquin, more than 200 tones of opaque (opaque) enamel were developed and obtained, and the method of making “champleved” enamel was restored.
"Overseas Guests" The sketch for this enamel was made by N.K. Roerich at the request of M.K. Tenisheva. The plate was made in 1907, ended up abroad and was sold at Sotheby's auction in Geneva in 1981.
Her works have been exhibited in London, Prague, Brussels, and Paris. In Italy - the birthplace of this matter - she was elected an honorary member of the Roman Archaeological Society. European experts ranked Tenisheva in the field of enamel work “one of the first places among her contemporary masters.” And in her homeland, Maria Klavdievna defended her dissertation entitled “Enamel and Inlay.” She was offered a chair in the history of enamel work at the Moscow Archaeological Institute.
Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna (20.V.1863, according to other sources 1864, St. Petersburg - 1.IV.1928, Paris), an outstanding figure in Russian and European culture, collector, philanthropist, artist, teacher, researcher of ancient enamels and inlays, creator of the artistic Talashkin near Smolensk.
Tenisheva began her journey in art as an opera singer, graduating from the studio of M. Marchesi in Paris. I was familiar with I.S. Turgenev, A.G. Rubinstein, P.I. Tchaikovsky. In 1892 she married Prince V.N. Tenishev, her range of interests expanded. Passionate about collecting, Tenisheva collected a unique collection of Russian and foreign graphics, part of which she donated to the Russian Museum (1898).
In those same years, she began to compile a collection of decorative, applied and folk art at her Smolensk estate Talashkino. A large section of the collection was represented by monuments of ancient Russian art, starting from the pre-Mongol period. In 1905, the collections were transported to Smolensk, in 1907 they were shown in the Louvre, and in 1911 they were donated to Smolensk (the Smolensk branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute). Fascinated by antiquity, Tenisheva collected a valuable collection of ancient enamels and inlays, which served her to write a dissertation on this topic, defended in 1916 and published in 1930 in Prague. This treatise has not lost its significance to this day; while also doing creative work in the field of enamels, she first formulated many of the laws of ancient enamels.
Tenisheva was the largest philanthropist of her time. She bought works by young artists and supported them financially. M.A. Vrubel, A.N. Benoit, S.V. Malyutin, N.K. Roerich were noted by her attention. She published the magazine "World of Art" and organized international exhibitions. Using her own funds, she opened a free drawing studio in St. Petersburg under the direction of I.E. Repin, which many subsequently graduated from outstanding artists.
The artistic atmosphere created in Talashkin attracted many artists to it, who found excellent conditions for work and recreation here. But Talashkin’s contribution to Russian culture is not limited to art. On the Flenovo farm, Tenisheva set up an exemplary agricultural school, inviting here Professor R.E. Regel, having developed a unique agricultural education program. Art workshops were organized in Talashkino, talented artists were invited, and a theater was created.
Lit.: Tenisheva M.K. Impressions of my life. – L., 1991; Zhuravleva L.S.: 1) Princess Maria Tenisheva. – Smolensk, 1994; 2) Talashkino. – Smolensk, 1995.
L.S. Zhuravleva
Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna, collector, philanthropist, artist, museum activist.
From a wealthy noble family (née Pyatkovskaya, by Nikolaev’s first marriage). She was raised by her mother, Maria Alexandrovna Pyatkovskaya (in her second marriage, von Desen). She studied at the private gymnasium M.P. Speshneva, then in the opera studio of M. Marchesi in Paris. She studied painting at the Julien Academy in Paris and at the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron Stieglitz in St. Petersburg. After graduating from the Moscow Archaeological Institute (Smolensk branch), she received the title of “scientific archaeologist” (1916).
Maria Klavdievna’s charitable activities began with her second marriage to one of the richest entrepreneurs in Russia, Prince V.N. Tenishev (1892), who financed various endeavors of his wife. On the initiative of Maria Klavdievna, a vocational school and six primary schools in Bezhitsa (at that time - Bryansk district of Oryol province, now a district of Bryansk), as well as an exemplary agricultural school on the Flenovo farmstead that belonged to it (Smolensk district).
In St. Petersburg, Maria Klavdievna opened and maintained a drawing studio (1894-1904), and a drawing school in Smolensk (1896-1899). In 1898-1899 financed by the magazine “World of Art”. In the Talashkino estate (Smolensk district), acquired in 1893, Maria Klavdievna established an art center, where art workshops, a theater were created, and many outstanding cultural figures lived and worked.
Since the early 1890s. became interested in collecting Russian antiquities, church antiquities, works of decorative and applied art and folk art, of which in Talashkino with the participation of I.F. Barshchevsky in the late 1890s. A historical and ethnographic museum arose.
With the help of A.N. Benoit collected a collection of graphics by domestic and foreign masters, which were exhibited in St. Petersburg in 1897 and partially transferred to the Russian Museum in 1898. Took part in archaeological excavations, often financing them.
She studied the history of enamel making and created a number of works of enamel art herself. She participated in the activities of research organizations operating in the Smolensk region (she was an honorary member of the church-archaeological committee, OISG, and the provincial scientific archival commission). Honorary citizen of Smolensk (1911). After the events of October 1917 emigrated to France.
Works: Bronze enamel bowl of the 1st-2nd centuries, found in a Roman burial in the city of Namur. - M., 1912; Impressions of my life.-Paris, 1933; L., 1991; Enamel and inlay.-Prague, 1930.
Sources: Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Princess M.K. Tenisheva in the village of Talashkino, near Smolensk // Historical Bulletin, 1901, vol. 86, p. 375, 376; Princess M.K. Tenishev and the “Historical and Ethnographic Museum” founded by her in Smolensk // Niva, 1911, No. 28, p. 519, 520; Report of the Society for the Study of the Smolensk Province on January 1, 1912. - Smolensk, 1912. - P. 4; Report on the activities of the Smolensk Scientific Archival Commission (from January 1, 1913 to January 1, 1914). - Smolensk, 1914. - P. 3; Report on the composition and activities of the Smolensk Church-Archaeological Committee for 1912 // Smolensk Diocesan Gazette, 1913, No. 13-14, official department, p. 424; Report of the Smolensk Scientific Archival Commission for the second year of its existence. (April 3, 1909 April 3, 1910). - Smolensk, 1911.-S. 11.64.
Literature: Danilevich N. The life and work of Maria Tenisheva // Monuments of the Fatherland, 1992, No. 28. p. 83-90; Zhuravleva L.S. Princess Maria Tenisheva. - Smolensk, 1992; she is the same. Talashkino. - M., 1989; she is the same. Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna//Smolensk region: Encyclopedia. -T 1 [Personalities]. - Smolensk. 2001. - P. 247; she is the same. Tenishevsky Museum "Russian Antiquity". - Smolensk, 1998; Ozer J. The world of enamels of Princess Maria Tenisheva. - M., 2004. - P. 10-13; Strizhova N.B. Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna. - Russian Museum Encyclopedia. - T. 2 [N-Ya]. -M., 2001. -S. 234, 235; Frolov A.I. Maria Tenisheva//Founders of Russian museums: Tutorial. - M., 1991. - P. 62-79.
M.V. Ivanov
Smolensk region: history of museum activities based on materials from private collections, exhibitions and museums (end of the 18th - first third of the 20th centuries)
Smolensk
2005
Russian noblewoman, public figure, enamel artist, teacher, philanthropist and collector
Maria Tenisheva
short biography
Princess Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva(nee Pyatkovskaya, by stepfather - Maria Moritsovna von Desen; in first marriage - Nikolaev; 1858-1928) - Russian noblewoman, public figure, enamel artist, teacher, philanthropist and collector. Founder of an art studio in St. Petersburg, Drawing school And Museum of Russian Antiquity in Smolensk, a vocational school in Bezhitsa, as well as art and industrial workshops in his own Talashkino estate.
Maria Pyatkovskaya was born on May 20 (June 1), 1858 in St. Petersburg. She married Rafail Nikolaevich Nikolaev early. The couple had a daughter, also named Maria, but the marriage did not work out. Soon Maria Klavdievna and her little daughter leave for Paris to study singing with the famous Marchesi. She had a wonderful soprano. Some time after returning to Russia, Maria Klavdievna met V.N. Tenishev. In 1892, Maria married Prince Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev, a major Russian industrialist (her husband’s relatives did not recognize her as a dowry, and Maria Klavdievna was not included in the genealogy of the Tenishev princes). The couple settled not far from the Bezhitsky plant on the Khotylevo estate, acquired by Prince Tenishev in the Bryansk district of the Oryol province and located on the banks of the Desna River, where the princess founded a one-class school. Princess Tenisheva's educational activities began with the organization of a vocational school near the Bezhitsa plant, the first graduation of which took place in May 1896, a canteen and a club for plant workers.
M.K. Tenisheva had excellent artistic taste, felt and loved art. N.K. Roerich called her “the real Martha the Posadnitsa.” Tenisheva collected watercolors and was familiar with the artists Vasnetsov, Vrubel, Roerich, Malyutin, Benois, the sculptor Trubetskoy and many other artists. She organized a studio to prepare young people for higher art education in St. Petersburg (1894-1904), where Repin taught. At the same time, an elementary drawing school was opened in Smolensk in 1896-1899. During her stay in Paris, Tenisheva studied at the Julian Academy and was seriously engaged in painting and collecting. A collection of watercolors by Russian masters was donated by Tenisheva to the State Russian Museum.
Maria Klavdievna subsidized (together with S.I. Mamontov) the publication of the magazine “World of Art”, financially supported creative activity A. N. Benois, S. P. Diaghilev and other outstanding figures of the “Silver Age”.
M. K. Tenisheva’s cherished dream was the enamel business, in which she was expected to have enormous success. It was thanks to the work of Tenisheva and her quest that the enamel business was revived, together with the artist Jacquin, more than 200 tones of opaque (opaque) enamel were developed and obtained, and the method of making “champleved” enamel was restored. Maria Klavdievna's works were appreciated, and in France she was elected a full member of the Society of Fine Arts in Paris and a member of the Union of Decorative and Applied Arts in Paris. After an exhibition of her works in Rome, Tenisheva received an Honorary Diploma from the Italian Ministry of Public Education and was elected an honorary member of the Roman Archaeological Society.
M. K. Tenisheva’s true passion was Russian antiquity. The collection of Russian antiquities she collected was exhibited in Paris and made an indelible impression. It was this collection that became the basis of the “Russian Antiquity” museum in Smolensk (now in the collection of the Smolensk Museum of Fine and Applied Arts named after S. T. Konenkov). In 1911, Tenisheva donated Russia’s first museum of ethnography and Russian decorative and applied arts, “Russian Antiquity,” to Smolensk. At the same time she was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the city of Smolensk.
One of the main educational projects in Tenisheva’s life was Talashkino, the family estate of Princess Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya (née Shupinskaya) (1857-1942), which the Tenishevs acquired in 1893 (the management of affairs was left in the hands of the former owner). Tenisheva and Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, friends since childhood, embodied in Talashkino the concept of an “ideological estate,” that is, a center of enlightenment, the revival of traditional folk artistic culture and at the same time the development of agriculture.
In 1894, the Tenishevs acquired the Flenovo farmstead near Talashkino and opened an agricultural school there, unique at that time, gathering excellent teachers and a rich library. Using the most advanced achievements of agricultural science allowed the school to train highly efficient farmers, which were required by Stolypin's reform.
After March 26, 1919, Tenisheva, together with her closest friend E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, maid Liza and close friend and assistant V.A. Lidin, left Russia forever and went through Crimea to France. Written in exile and published in Paris after her death, the memoirs of Princess Tenisheva are “Impressions of my life. Memoirs" - covers the period from the late 1860s to New Year's Eve 1917
Tenisheva died on April 14, 1928 in the Parisian suburb of La Celle-Saint-Cloud. In his obituary dedicated to Maria Klavdievna, I. Ya. Bilibin wrote: “She devoted her entire life to her native Russian art, for which she did an infinite amount.”.